


Skeptics (And True Believers)

by loveappeal



Category: AfterSchool (band), Hello Venus
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-20
Updated: 2013-09-20
Packaged: 2017-12-27 02:59:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/973512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveappeal/pseuds/loveappeal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>McDonald's and make out's in creepy low lit mall hallways. The true meaning of romance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skeptics (And True Believers)

She was love - the drumstick tapping against the cymbal of her heart. First slow and almost demure, contradictory to the usual strong aura she gave off

She was beauty. The first time she’d set eyes upon her, her mouth had went as dry as the Sahara. She had searched left and right for a cure to her xerostomia - coffee, tea, soda, one of the miniature sample bottles of the disgusting perfume of the season her manager was trying to push off on every customer that even breathed in the direction of their counter? No, no of the above. The only perceivable quench to that thirst was this girl. Drinking in whatever she’d allow her to.

She was sex, something that they hadn’t exactly gotten the chance at yet, but she was more than willing to try.

She was a victory that she would love to be able to say she’d conquered some day

She was E-Young (she insisted on people calling her this as if it automatically gave her some sort of infallible “cool factor” to go on). Swaying to and fro on stage at one of those weird music clubs she frequented. Behind the counter of that dusty music shop she worked at - fingers strumming across the strings of her cherished guitar when they should have been playing chord progressions along the curve of her spine.

But, hidden in the dark and damp corridors of the building they had both been forced to dub as “work”, E-Young became Yi Young. One side softer and more open to vulnerability, the other more wary of what a transition from fast, sloppy and almost desperate kisses to the occasional butterfly kiss may mean.

Ara was well aware that she could have been living in a dreamworld. Maybe all the signs that she had picked up on beyond the purely physical had been nothing more than a figment of her imagination. She did have quite the imagination, but… no. She didn’t want to think like that; it just made her stomach cramp in the same manner it did every time that she missed lunch break (like she had today)

There was something there between the two of them - maybe it wasn’t something strong, but it was still that: something. Yi Young wasn’t some Manic Pixie Dream Girl fantasy that she had conjured up to help make her slower days at work go by a bit faster. She was real - she had felt her under her fingertips, splayed the soft pillows on the lower half of her face apart with her…

Okay, maybe she was putting her up on a pedestal. Just a tiny bit. Ara couldn’t help herself though; she was so beautiful. She was Venus to her; love, beauty, sex and victory. All of those qualities encompassed together in a dingy plaid shirt and skinny jeans.

She was…

“Ara, you’re doing it again.” Jolting forward, an image of Yi Young sprawled dramatically across the core of a seashell that had possessed her mind only mere seconds beforehand was erase entirely - replaced with a boring reality. Eyes taking a moment to focus back on the scene in front of her, her bottom lip jutted forward instinctively at the sight of a young mother running in the direction of her toddler son - who was completely fucking up the christmas display she’d just put up that morning. Goddamn it, she was going to have to do it all over again; stupid kids

“Doing what?” Voice reverberating with the slight distance from reality she was still feeling, though Ara was still enough in tune to catch the glare her manager shot her. “ _What?_ ”

“Zoning out when you’re supposed to be hitting up every single person who comes to this counter with samples of the seasonal perfume!” Ah yes, “Sparkling Blackberry Woods”. Because everyone wanted to smell like a stranded woodsman who had fed off of wild blackberries to save his own life for their lovers during this fine holiday season. It was just so romantic. “You really have to step up your game, Ara. I like you - you have a cute face and it brings in the boys which is great for business - especially if they have girlfriends they can buy for.” Wow, heartfelt compliments left and right. “But you’re not that great of a businesswoman. Do I have to make you go through training again?”

“No!” God, no. No, that was the last thing she wanted. She had only got this job so she could have some extra cash for take in during the school year. The last thing she wanted to do was become a master of the trait and make people think she was planning on making a life of it or something, Jesus. “I’ll try to stop zoning out, I promise.”

“Good.” Letting out a sign of relief as the woman turned on her heels, and as she caught sight of the nearby wall clock: only fifteen minutes until her shift was over, Ara gave a firm nod of her head to seal off the “accuracy” of her promise. “Oh, also? You were drooling on the counter again - please, just… pull yourself together.”

Christ.

——

“ _Fuck!_ ”

Noh Yi Young, or the artist currently known as E-Young to anyone who hadn’t been given her blessing to call her by her birth name, fell forward off her metal bench. Bringing her index and middle finger into the soft, warm cushioning of her mouth, her eyes formed into tiny slits at the acoustic laying askew at her feet. This is what she got for trying out the new models: mangled fingers.

“You okay out there?” The voice of her trusty, and usually well hidden, manager echoed out from the inside of his office - barely catching a glimpse of the top of his head at the corner of the doorway

“Yeah, I’m… whatever.” Whatever, exactly. That’s what she was: whatever, and she was going to stay whatever until her shift ended in four minutes because this day had been absolute shit. Not only had they gotten all of their orders in three hours later than expected, but her partner in “crime” and (it saddened her to admit) best friend, Jung Jinwoon, had showed up just as late for his part of the shift. The asshole had used some lame excuse to try and get out of it too. He had to “go with his girlfriend to a organic market to get ingredients for the smoothies she was making them for dinner”. For fuck’s sake, who drank organic smoothies when they could just go to Smoothie King and buy something? It made no fucking sense.

But nothing about that girl made any sense to her. Nothing about him made sense to her either though, so maybe it was a perfect fit.

“You’re “whatever”? It doesn’t sound like you’re “whatever”.” Eyebrow cocking as she moved downward to pick up the bastard guitar, her mind begun to go over the million directions this conversation with Jong Wan Ahjussi (yeah Ahjussi) could have been going. She already had her fingers metaphorically crossed at her most preferred: absolutely nowhere

“I’m fine, things have just been totally shitty here today _Ahjussi_. No thanks to, that _jerk off_ over there."

Placing the guitar back into it’s rightful spot, Yi Young turned her body in the opposite direction of her boss and the boy who was currently at the top of her shit list (who she was pretty sure had been crouched behind a stack of sheet music for a good fifteen minutes), mumbling various curses to herself in the process

Just three more minutes, that was all. Three minutes. She could do this, she could…

A groan escaping her throat, Yi Young spun back around, stomping forward with enough force to make a small rack of key chains nearby tremor. “Jinwoon.” Her voice ricocheted off the wall in front of her as she made her way toward where she was (pretty sure) the giant baby was hiding. “I know you’re behind there and I recommend that you start kissing my…”

“Hey!” A voice boomed out from the area in front of her, the large frame of her former best friend popping up from exactly where she expected him to be, Jack-in-the-box style, a lopsided grin gracing his features. “I didn’t know you were on the schedule today too, what a small world…”

Squinting at Jinwoon, “Right, because we didn’t just spend over an hour trying to catch up on the orders you weren’t here to put out with me. You’re lucky that I don’t ring your fuck-…”

Cut off a hard muscled chest crushing against her face, Yi Young let out a hot breath into the rough material of his shirt, arms flailing at his side. She needed to escape from this, she needed to get away before he made it too hard for him to be mad at him . “Bud, I’m sorry. You know how Seohyun can get. She found this recipe for strawberry-banana-almond… oatmeal smoothies and she was so excited about it. I can’t turn her down when her face gets all squished up and… adorable like that. She’s my kryptonite, but I’ll make it up to you, okay?” O God, he was pouting.

Okay, he’d won this time. Maybe.

Finally managing to pull back from her (maybe she could call him it again, maybe not) friend, Yi Young dusted off the bottom half of her shift, craning slightly the sight to catch the time: one minute after five. Her shift had ended… sixty seconds earlier. How long had he actually had her in that bear hug for? Christ Almightly. “Wow, would you look at that, you made me late.”

“Late for what?” The question hung around Yi Young as she dashed toward the counter, quickly clocking out of her account and grabbing her purse. Turning back toward Jinwoon only to shoot him a small smile, her responded with a nod of his head. “Ah, yes. That.”

“Yes, that. If I miss my cue, you’re going to owe me so hard loser.”

With that, she made her motion toward the exist of the shop, not bothering to give a goodbye to either her friend or manager, just barely catching the “I love you, too!” Jinwoon shouted at her

It would have been embarrassing if she hadn’t set herself off into such a frenzy already.

——-

Left hand clasped around the top half of a McDonald’s take out bag (as if she were holding on to it for dear life - but who says she wasn’t?), Ara let out an exasperated sigh as she brought a damp cloth to her eye with the free hand. Maybe her manager had been right - maybe she should have went in for some extra training. Maybe if she’d done that, she would have saved herself from shooting Sparkling Blackberry Woods into her eye for the second time that week

She was going to be blind in that eye by the time she graduated from college, she swore.

On top of all of that, she was more than certain that the her eyeliner game had been thrown completely off - and she had no way to fix it. No hand mirror, no eyeliner or mascara on call, and certainly not enough time. It was five after eight - which mean that Yi Young was going to show up at any second and she sure as hell didn’t want to be caught fixing herself up when she got there. That’d be kind of embarrassing; like she was going out of her way to look good for her when… okay, maybe she would have been but that was beside’s the point.

It wasn’t like she needed to do herself all up anyway. They were just… going to hang out, or make out, what they usually did. Eat some food, suck some face, that was it. It wasn’t a date and they definitely weren’t _dating_.

Resisting the urge to laugh at the idea, more out of sheer embarrassment at the though of Yi Young even picking up on her thinking about them that way than amusement, Ara turned her gaze down toward her feet. Setting the bag down onto the floor, minding not to sit it on a small pile of… dirt or something equally disgusting, she curved her back slightly in an attempt to sort through it. Letting out a sigh, her pointer finger slid under the opening of the bag, catching a whiff of the french fries she had been craving all fucking day. Reading to just slam her hand into the bag and steal a few early on, Ara was halted by a set of fingers sliding up that same arm.

Maybe she would have been more concerned about someone grabbing at her in a dark and otherwise empty hallway if the fingers hadn’t felt so familiar. The calluses, from years of hard practice toward mastering instrument after instrument, had imprinted themselves into her skin months ago. “Yi Young?”

Her voice came out, barely above a whisper, as her hand retreated back from the top of the bag - only to grasp itself onto the shoulder of her company. Head tilting upward, dark eyes took in the sight in front of her. She looked as beautiful as ever; lips turned into a small smile, eyes sparkling with that same mixture of excitement and what she could only define as “lust”. A lust that she was all too familiar with. Far more familiar that the other things she had been feeling as of late.

“You smell like my mom’s garden.” Yi Young couldn’t help but snort at the revelation as she took a step closer to Ara, hand slithering from her forearm to waist with ease.

Fucking Sparkling Blackberry Woods.

Turning her face the slightly, Ara let out a laugh of her own - much more awkward, but a laugh, nonetheless. “Yeah, that, I didn’t really have time to go and change out of my work clot…” Yi Young cut herself off as the other girl, her Venus, titled her head toward the base of her neck. Her entire frame quivered as a hot breath escape the other’s mouth. “… clothes, yeah. Sorry about that.”

“It’s fine, you always look nice.” And maybe Ara would have found that much more adorable if it hadn’t been matched with incisors taking in a small portion of her flesh. Was she hungry? God, no. She wasn’t a cannibal or… no, there was nothing wrong with being hungry for another person. Wishing that their tongue could lap against your navel, that their fingers could roam a bit further than the hem of your skirt, that you had a little more privacy that the back hallway of a fucking mall.

But that would have required taking things further, in general. Taking things out of the general proximity of a place both knew well - a place that both were comfortable with. Ara was fine with the idea, sure, it was all she had been thinking about for weeks now but that was irrelevant if Yi Young wasn’t interested as well.

The thought alone Ara pout as Yi Young begun to leave her mark up the side of her neck, jawline, across her cheeks and the even the bridge of her nose before finally finding her way to a cavity in much need of closing. She was afraid that if Yi Young hadn’t kissed her she would have blurted something out anyway. God, and how humiliating would that have been?

Super humiliating.

As humiliating as it had been the first time that they had done this. Ara cringed inwardly at the memory of her stumbling and fumbling - hands in all the wrong places, tongue sloppy and all senses going against her wishes as she laughing at Yi Young caressing her most ticklish of spots

Yi Young hadn’t been mad at her though (“I could never be mad at her”, she had thought, unbeknownst to Ara herself). It had been endearing, if anything. A little too endearing, maybe. The idea of falling for another person had always been a tricky one for her. Girl, boy, it didn’t matter who the person was - it was just the thought of giving your entire being to another human. Physically, emotionally. It was such a terrifying idea - being that vulnerable, and she hated being terrified. But there was something about Ara that made her want to reconsider that fear.

Reconsidering fear, that must have been a first.

What would dating even be like for the two of them? The thought ran through Ara’s mind, for what had to be the thousandth time that month, as she took a hit - back to the brick of the wall behind her. She would have yelped in pain if she hadn’t been so lost in thought already.

Yi Young shot her an apologetic smile, nevertheless.

It was one of the many apologizes that she probably owed Ara at this point. For being late for whatever… this all was, even if by a few minutes, and for maybe stringing her along a bit. She wasn’t an idiot; she’d caught on to the way that she looked at her. When their lips would part and the tips of her fingers broke apart from the small of her back (which had become one of her favorite parts of Ara's body - so far), and the desire that had dilated her pupils moments earlier was replaced with a completely different type of yearning.

It had put her off at first, she could admit that now, but eventually, she’d grown used to it - and even begun to wonder if her orbs had begun to match this.

Maybe they had, but if so, Ara wasn’t letting on any.

Or… it was possible she hadn’t because she wasn’t sure what to think - which was exactly it. Ara wasn’t sure of anything at the moment, past the terribly she wanted to see what Yi Young looked like out of that stupid flannel shirt of hers. Groaning at the thought, a hand traveled under the thick material of her top, fingertips feeling as if they could melt right into mound of flesh they gripped against. Like a wax, or putty, but the idea of Yi Young’s skin morphing into either just made her want to laugh.

Resisting the urge to do so as her hands traveled further upward, trailing over the steps of Yi Young’s spine, Ara finally cracked - a small chuckle which turned into a full blown laugh against Yi Young’s lips. Pulling back abruptly, she raised her free hand to the cover her mouth, continuing on with her laughter until catching a glimpse of Yi Young’s face. Confusion. She was confused. She’d confused her

“… You’re laughing.” Shit. She probably thought that she was laughin a her which … okay, she kind o ha been but kind of not, too. “Are you not into this right now? I can just leave or something, it’s whatever.”

Eyes widening as Yi Young begun to turn away from her without as much of a reply - Ara’s hand shot forward, gripping onto her shoulder. “No! No… no. I wasn’t laughing at you. You’re awesome, I just thought of something funny and couldn’t… contain myself.”

Yi Young cocked her eyebrow in curiosity. “Something funny? Like what kind of funny? Someone falling down a staircase funny, or… bird flying into a patio door funny?”

It was now Ara's turn to be confused. “… Neither of those things are really fun, but to each their own, I guess!” Smiling meekly, she let out another laugh - this time much softer, bordering on that same awkwardness she’d been feeling before Yi Young had arrived. “Your skin is just really… hot and I started thinking about you turning into wax or putty and melting.”

God, that sounded so much weirder said out loud.

… And she wasn’t saying anything.

No, no, no, no. She shouldn’t have even said anything to her - things were going to be weird now. It hadn’t been funny; she’d totally offended her, hadn’t she? No one liked to be compared to things like wax, Jesus, Ara. Think before you speak.

“Melting? Because I’m hot?” Pursing her lips together in an attempt to understand where the conversation was even going, Yi Young sent a smile toward Ara - to indicate that no harm had been done. No offense, no anything. It’d actually been kind of cute… in a completely bizarre and random way.

Because she was random, Ara knew this, and everyone who knew her was also aware. Sometimes she just said things, whether she wanted to or not. That and spacing out were kind of her thing and if Yi Young wanted to be part of her life at all, even just as a friend who she kind of made out with sometimes, she’d have to get used to that eventually. “Yes, exactly. You’re totally hot.”

“Yeah, I assumed.”

Blunt. She was blunt and that was one of the many things Ara had grown to… love about her. In all the instances that she’d actually had conversations with the girl. From the time that she’d told her that her work shirt was inside out (no one else had told her during her shift that day) or when she’d yelled at that coworker friend of hers for somehow managing to alphabetize an entire supply of albums from ‘z’ to ‘a’.

She wasn’t afraid to speak up and tell the truth when she had to (with the exception of that one time she’d lied to Jang Dongwoo about having a sick boyfriend when she really didn’t have one… at all), so what was keeping her from doing that right now? Ara was right in front of her; inches away but she still couldn’t find the balls to just come out and say what she’d been thinking about lately.

And it was a two way street

Letting out another awkward chuckle, Ara crouched down for the McDonald’s bag - completely the task she had been attempting before being accosted. Pulling out the large fry she had ordered, she held it out as an offering for Yi Young. “Hungry?”

“Starving.” Yi Young replied, taking a few fries from the container before stepping to the side, back against the wall, and sliding onto the ground. It was probably dirty as hell but she could deal for a few.

Looking up at Ara, catching a glimpse of the bright smile that had taken over her features as she chomped down on a few fries of her own, Yi Young felt a warm bubbling at the center of her stomach that was completely distant from anything like arousal. No lust, all love, or… like, a strong like. Or maybe love. She wasn’t sure yet.

“These are so good.” Ara’s own worries had subsided as the fries slid down her throat - God, she’d been so hungry. This was what she got for spacing out during her lunch break. It just sucked that she had to share these - kind of. At least it was with someone worthwhile.

“They are.” Taking in the final of the few fries she’d grabbed, Yi Young continued to stare up at Ara, feeling that same sensation beginning to rise from her core to her throat. Gulping to keep it down, she felt it begin to rise once again within seconds. Shit, it was going to come out whether she liked it or not, wasn’t it? “Ara.”

Watching as Ara turned away from her fries in curiosity, eyes widening to a size she was sure she’d never seen them at before, “… Have I ever told you that this hallway totally creeps me out?”

“No? Does it really? You should have said something earlier; we could have went to… my car or something.” Was she being serious right now? Did the hallway really creep her out or was this her way of excusing herself from ever having to see her again? Shit. What if it was?

Pondering over her reply, Yi Young shrugged her shoulders lightly. “Kind of. It the griminess, I think. I’m always waiting for some pervert to pop out with a camera and snap us making out or someone with a chainsaw to…” Trailing off, she gave a small shake of her heat. “Chainsaw wielding psychopaths aside, I was kind of thinking that we could maybe… hang out sometime. The two of us in a more… private setting.”

“Private… setting?” Like a place that wasn’t at a the mall? As in: she wanted to be alone with her somewhere? “I’d be cool with that.”

Taking up a quick silence as she brought herself back up to her feet again, Yi Young stepped in front of Ara once again, eyebrow raising for the umpteenth time that day. “Good, because I like you.”

It was as simple as that - three words, and they’d come out smoothly, like butter across a slice of toast, and the look Ara gave her afterward was more than worth all the over thinking she’d been doing. “Actually?”

“Well…, yeah. I wouldn’t have made out with you in a creepy hallway like this if I didn’t. I was maybe kind of…, sort of desperate to be with you.” God, that sounded so sad.

“Wow.” Biting down on her bottom lip, Ara turned her eyes away from Yi Young for a quick moment - head tilting almost shyly downward before turning back up to look at her. “I like you too - a lot. Obviously. I’m… I’m pretty obvious.”

Moving a hand to grasp her unoccupied hand, Yi Young smiled back at Ara. “Yeah, you were.&rdquo

And silence took over for the two as each decided what to do next, what to say, who was to make the next move. Maybe that wasn’t necessary though and that realization hit both at simultaneously as Ara clasped her hand around Yi Young’s.

“You’re not busy the rest of the night, right? The girl that I dorm with is going to be out with her boyfriend all night and I don’t work until noon tomorrow, so…"

It was a tempting proposition and Yi Young was almost impressed by the bold turn of events from Ara. Dragging out the moment, she finally gave her answer: with a quick wink of her eye before moving forward to seal the space between the once again. It was just how she liked it, it was what she’d become used to, but that could change, right? She wasn’t opposed to a change, at least.


End file.
